Customer.Community: Unleashing the Power of Your Customer Base

There is a growing body of knowledge on how an ebusiness (or any business online) can be a success (profit wise) on the Internet.More and more successfull ebusinesses are taking advantage of the relationship between community & commerce. This book describes the relationship and why there are real strong business benefits to be obtained for designing community around any commercial website.The are a number of benefits for combining community & commerce together. The authors point out increased customer loyalty, lower operational (support) expenses and an increase in direct revenue. The authors provide examples of websites designed that take advantage of the relationship of community & commerce: ... A two page chart of all customer community pioneers is provided which ranks each site according to the 12 principles of successful community building. These 12 principles are: 1. have a clear purpose for the virtual community (vc)2. Allow members to be able to identify each other3. Allow for reputation to arise in the vc4. Create a system of governance in the vc5. Allow for communication between members6. Allow for groups to form in the vc (smaller vc's)7. Create an environment for members to talk8. Create boundaries for the vc9. Create a system of trust10. Allow for exchange of knowledge & experience11. Allow community to have character12. Allow vc to have history.In the book community is not seen as isolated from commerce rather as an integrated part towards providing increased knowledge for customers and increased revenue for an online business - in other words customers and the business collectively benefit. The authors also draw on research from ... which supports the relationship of community & commerce online.

This book is a great resource on why and how businesses should use online community. The authors outline the twelve principles for building community which provide a terrific foundation to understanding how people interact. The book includes many examples of best practices from companies across a variety of industries, from cosmetics to software.Anyone needing to justify how an online community contributes to the bottom line will love Chapter 7. The authors include a full page chart on pg. 169 that breaks out how a community can contribute to customer loyalty, revenue, and lowering operational expenses. A must-read if you are even considering creating an online community!